Here we go again-Ukraine once again pt2

[Jimbuna]

Danger level is very high: Russia deploys surface missile carriers in Black Sea

The Russian Federation has deployed three surface missile carriers in the Black Sea. The level of danger is currently very high, according to the Southern Defense Forces of Ukraine on Telegram.

"The enemy has deployed three surface missile carriers in the Black Sea, equipped with up to 24 Kalibr-type missiles. The level of danger is very high!" the message states.

Ukrainians are urged to pay close attention to air raid signals. In case of an alert, it is crucial to promptly move to shelters.

It is worth noting that on the night of May 19, the missile ship Tsiklon was hit and sunk in Sevastopol. It was the last cruise missile carrier in Crimea but interestingly, it never managed to launch a single missile.
Other Russian ships of Project 22800 have also been disabled or have left the Black Sea. Specifically, the ship Askold was eliminated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and Amur and Tucha were forced to leave the Black Sea, heading to the Caspian Sea via Rostov for testing.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...2d127c5a&ei=17

[Jimbuna]

Biden announces $225m arms package for Ukraine as he meets with Zelensky in France

The US will soon dispatch an arms and aid package to Ukraine amounting to $225million as Kyiv works to repel renewed Russian attacks, President Joe Biden said on Friday.

Biden announced the new tranche of defense assistance in Paris during a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, a day after the Ukrainian president joined the US president and other world leaders for ceremonies commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

In remarks at the American cemetery in Normandy during the ceremony, Biden had described Ukraine’s fight against Russia as a modern-day analog of the war against Hitler and Nazism while stressing the importance of beating back isolationist sentiment, providing an implicit contrast with his predecessor and likely 2024 election opponent, former president Donald Trump.

Sitting alongside Zelensky on Friday, Biden again told the Ukrainian leader that the US would “stand with [him]” and praised the country’s resistance to Russia’s invasion, specifically how forces have pushed back on Moscow’s offensive in the city of Kharkiv.

“The way you’ve stood in holding onto Kharkiv, you’ve proven once again that the people of Ukraine cannot and will never be overtaken ... you are the bulwark against the aggression that’s taking place. We have an obligation to be there,” Biden said.

“You haven’t bowed down. You haven’t yielded at all. You continue to fight in a way that is just remarkable, just remarkable.”

“We’re not going to walk away from you,” he added.

Biden also apologized for the months-long delay in approving new aid to Ukraine, caused by Republicans in Congress who opposed the defense assistance at the behest of former president Donald Trump.

“We had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money in it. Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally,” Biden said.

The president has repeatedly linked Ukraine’s defense to a broader struggle between democracy and autocracy — a theme which dovetails with the one he has used to describe his re-election fight against Trump. The presumptive Republican nominee has threatened to cut off all aid to Ukraine if he wins the November presidential election.

Zelensky thanked Biden for the continued US support and said it was “very important” for America to stand with Ukraine the way the western allies stood together during the Second World War, “shoulder to shoulder.”

“We are with you, with our strategic partner,” Zelensky said.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...6f9c7374&ei=67

[Dargo]

[Jimbuna]

War Spreads: Russia Believed to be Behind 3 Mysterious Sabotage Attacks Across Europe

Mysterious fires broke out in shopping centers and warehouses across Europe, believed to have been the handiwork of saboteurs from Russia.

Knewz.com has learned that the Polish Prime Minister was the first to suggest that the Western bloc might be under sabotage attack from Russian spies.

The first fire was caused in March 2024, at a warehouse in East London which was being used to supply aid to Ukraine.

Following the London incident, an Ikea outlet in Vilnius, Lithuania, went up in flames under mysterious circumstances.

The third attack targeted the largest shopping center in Warsaw, the Marywilska 44, following which Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of Poland, theorized that Vladimir Putin's elaborate network of spies and saboteurs could be behind the arson attacks all over Europe.
"We are examining the threads – they are quite likely – that the Russian services had something to do with the Marywilska fire," Tusk said in a statement in May, via The Telegraph.

However, given the massive crackdown on Putin's espionage network in Europe and the United Kingdom, Russia had to look for alternative avenues to carry out clandestine strikes on foreign soil.

According to an intelligence assessment shared with the Western governments, the Russian military intelligence agency GRU currently employs local criminals to do their bidding, replacing the need to plant the Kremlin's own saboteurs in each nation.

It is worth noting that a 20-year-old British national was arrested back in April for orchestrating the arson at the London warehouse upon orders from Russia. Court documents cited by CBS News at the time alleged that the man, who was a resident of Leicestershire in central England, was connected to the Russian mercenary group Wagner.

"He is accused of organizing and paying for an arson attack on two units on an industrial estate in Leyton, east London, on March 20, which required 60 firefighters to bring under control," CBS wrote in its report.

The London arson was also followed by the expulsion of Colonel Maxim Elovik, Moscow’s defense attache in the U.K.

The Telegraph added that a former Russian soldier was recently arrested in Paris after explosives detonated in his hotel room.

While the entities being employed by Russia to carry out sabotages and espionage attacks in the West are not as skilled as GRU operatives, they are still effective in accomplishing the objectives Russia aspires for in the Western bloc.

"The capabilities these gangs can provide are pretty low-level, but they can still achieve Russian foreign policy objectives, namely, destabilizing the West, deterring European decision-makers against supporting Ukraine and exacerbating polarisation and societal tensions across not only NATO but the European Union," Alexander Lord, lead Europe-Eurasia analyst at Sibylline, a geopolitical risk firm, told The Telegraph.

However, their lack of skill poses another significant problem, as a counter-intelligence officer explained in a statement to the outlet: "There is a greater chance of collateral damage and casualties as the proxies are not skilled in tradecraft, such as explosives."

On the other hand, the illegal operatives Russia has deployed as a replacement for its displaced spy network have proven to be especially sloppy and susceptible to capture.

Sources familiar with the current Russian espionage network told The Daily Express that the Kremlin's spies cannot stay operational for very long nowadays and their network can be disrupted with incredible ease.

"Almost every intelligence operation they have now is incredibly stupid and they are now almost an embarrassment. When they have tried to prop someone up, they don't stay operational [for long]. You can disrupt them a mile away," the source who spoke to the outlet stated.

It is worth noting that Estonia detained ten alleged saboteurs believed to be operating under orders from Russia as part of a “hybrid operation” by the Russian special services back in February.

Officials from the Security Service said at the time that the alleged saboteurs assumed a variety of roles in the covert operation in Estonia, from collecting intelligence to planning and executing attacks, based on the instructions they were provided by their handlers in Russia.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...dd6f41a1&ei=12

[Dargo]

Manufacturer of Caesar artillery systems announces plans to build plant in Ukraine

The Franco-German company KNDS announced on Friday, 7 June, that it would set up a subsidiary in Ukraine.

Source: European Pravda, citing BFMTV, French news broadcast television and radio network

Details: The announcement was made in the presence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Representatives of the KNDS and the Ukrainian company ENMEK signed two declarations of intent, one of which concerns the creation of a maintenance centre for Caesar self-propelled howitzers (SPHs), and the other relates to the 3D printing of spare parts. A contract was also formalised for the transfer of licensed production of 155mm shells to Ukraine. KNDS produces artillery systems and main battle tanks, as well as Caesar SPHs used by Ukraine's Armed Forces.

Background:

• In late March, French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu and his German counterpart Boris Pistorius announced that the plant would produce military equipment and ammunition on Ukrainian soil.
• In addition, talks between President Zelenskyy and his US counterpart Joe Biden commenced in the French capital of Paris, where the White House announced a new US$225 million aid package for Ukraine.
• Media reports indicate that the announced package includes, among other things, air defence missiles, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, Javelin and AT-4 anti-tank systems, 155mm howitzers, armoured vehicles, trailers, patrol boats, demolition materials and a wide range of other spare parts and equipment.

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/06/7/7459691/

[Dargo]

Casualties of the Russo-Ukrainian War

[mapuc]

5000 killed and 15.000 wounded or missing each month, is way to high, even for an army like the Russians.

The word meatgrinder fits fine here

Markus

[mapuc]

Markus

[Skybird]

Its important to keep in mind what the Mirage 2000 probably is not so good for: air to air combat versus agile enemy fighter jets. It was developed to hunt down high flying, fast flying bombers, speed and altitude that it can acchieve are bought at the cost of agility, due to the design of delta wings and the lack of separate elevator planes on the tail.



It can do well in the role of intercepting cruise missiles, big drones, and as as launching platform for air-borne cruise missiles and missiles, giving the latter a slight range bonus if fired from the plane at high speed and altitude.



How it can deal with modern electronic warfare environments and how its' ECM can defend against Russian anti air missiles, I have no idea. By the record from Israel's use of Mirages I would conclude that it needs a really well skilled, well experienced pilot to shine who knows the plane very well. I think it will be more difficult to learn than the F-16, and the F-16 already has its - complexities... Thats why I do not expect the Mirages to fly in Ukraine any time soon. Next year. Late in next year. Trainign Ukrainian piltos on them will probaly take logner than for the F-16, and that training already is not up to the timetabl, but lags behind.



It also needs a comlet new logistics chain, engineer trainign and so forth. Plenty of additional complications. It would be better if the Ukrainians would just get more Vipers. And supporting these and preparing airfields for them already is a challenge.



Stations for Western-made fighters will, like Western-raised military production facilities inside Ukraine, not escape Russian eyes for long. Fighters can be swapped back and forth between airfields to reduce their risk to get caught in a bombardment on the ground. Factories cannot. Even less with he sort of air defence we see in Ukraine - insufficient air defences, that is. Also, factories need power. Most of Ukraine's power production is down, and gets degraded further with every week passing by. Militarily it makes no sense to now invest isnide Ukraine. It should instead be done on NATO territory, close to the borders with Ukraine. And one should be prepared for everything. If Russia attacks NAOT soil with it sown fire, then we must be willign to make it pay.



Thats the meaning of "deterrance".



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Media report of several sabotge attacks throughout Europe, fires laid in warehouses and the likes. These attacks are attributed to Russia. Plus the attackls ion energy ifnratsrutcure, caber attacks, election interferences, media maniulations, cirmnjnal backmailiugn attaks in the cyberpsace.



Russia is already at war with us - whether we want to admit it or not. And it preceded the start of the war in Ukraine by years.

[mapuc]

Markus